Liverpool 1-1 Everton

United are now top of the table with a game in hand after Liverpool drew Everton.

Looks like Rafa really has lost the plot and can't handle the pressure.

Tim Cahill with a gorgeous goal. Gerrard's was good too, but Liverpool didn't show enough fight in this match given the title battle.

Very tough game. It takes special individual efforts to break the deadlock in games with so little space to work like this one. It was so hard to find scoring chances that it took a Gerrard shot from far out on a counterattack for the first goal and a set piece on the other end for the other. It was so fiercely contested that nearly any team in England would have had a hard time breaking down either defense.

Here's my advice for Benitez: start Ryan Babel vs Wigan and bench Robbie Keane. At least for Torres we can give him the benefit of the doubt that he hasn't quite gotten up to speed since coming back from injury, but Keane just hasn't cut it. Like I said, it takes individual efforts to break open a game with no space to put anything together, and Babel is the best goalscorer on the bench, NOT YOSSI BENNAYOUN.

I wouldn't say Rafa is the one completely responsible for Liverpool's failure to put teams away...some fans may accuse him for randomly taking a shot at SAF but I believe one of the outcomes he expected after that press conference was a sense of vengeance within his squad.

Right now, many are writing Liverpool off because of Rafa, which is not fair. It is not a manager's fault if his high-profile squad cannot handle the pressure resulting from a single press conference. So in that sense, it is hard to say whether it is actually Rafa, and not the underperforming Reds squad, who has lost the plot.

On the flip side, I have to agree with j6pini that tonight was just one of those games where any team would have a tough time breaking down Everton so Liverpool can be partially forgiven despite the fact that they should have taken the home advantage at Anfield. But a double goalless draw against Stoke is outright unacceptable for those Scousers.

I still think that Liverpool should've performed better. It was a big game and Liverpool just didn't show up.